E-commerce, as a segment, is growing in demand every year. It also witnessed a recent surge due to the coronavirus pandemic. With people staying indoors, ordering groceries or other stuff online is definitely easier and safer, with products being safely delivered to one’s doorstep. However, for businesses large or small, taking care of inventory, shipping and delivery can be a hassle. Making this task easier is UK-based startup Huboo, which has now secured Series A funding.
Huboo’s current funding details
The latest €15.29M series A funding for Huboo was led by Stride.VC, along with Hearst Ventures. In addition, several other investors such as Episode 1, Maersk Growth, Ada Ventures, and True Capital also pitched in. With the latest funding round, the total amount raised by the startup now stands at €19.69M.
Huboo offers an en-to-end solution for online sellers using e-commerce channels. The company’s fulfillment service picks up stocks, stores, packs and delivers it on a client’s behalf. While this is happening, the client gets access to Huboo’s dashboard to keep an eye on the stocks. The software also offers options like order tracking and billing information, and it can be integrated with third-party sales channels and marketplaces, such as Amazon, eBay and Shopify. Integrating the software stack enables Huboo to process orders simultaneously.
Bolstering European presence and team expansion
Huboo will utilise the fresh funds to enhance its services and operations on three fronts, software development, U.K. expansion and forming an on-the-ground European presence due to Brexit, reports TechCrunch. This entails hiring new personnel to increase the software development team’s count by as much as ten-fold in the next year to further expand the features of its fulfilment software platform. Furthermore, Huboo plans to boost client growth by introducing a third warehouse in U.K. by October 2020 and another one in January 2021.
“The vast majority of independent retailers are currently moving online,” Huboo CEO, Martin Bysh, comments. “The pandemic has provided the catalyst for a mass shift into multi-channel commerce over the next five years.” Bysh also believes that the direct-to-consumer (D2C) “revolution” is rapidly gaining pace, “with a new breed of agile young D2C businesses bypassing conventional retail channels to engage directly with consumers”.
All this while retail fulfilment becomes tougher to deal with as customers expect faster delivery times. “The composition of supply chains is changing due to the pandemic, with retailers forced to pay more attention to where they’re sourcing their products and how to build more robust supply chains,” adds Bysh.
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